E4M8: Shattered Bridge (Heretic)

E4M8: Shattered Bridge is the eighth level in The Ossuary episode of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders. It uses the music track "John" by Kevin Schilder. Like the other level eight slots, the boss tag 666 is active, here keyed to the iron lich.

Essentials
From the start, head down and make a U-turn around the structure you emerge from to find the Dragon Claw. The titular shattered bridge is here, with many nitrogolems firing at you from across the water. Take out as many of them as you can; the bridge itself is operated by an obscure trigger mechanism where sections of it will raise when your shots hit the spinal column pillars on the far side. In the course of the firefight with the nitrogolems across the water you'll probably hit enough of them without even trying that you'll be able to dash across any remaining gaps.

On the other side of the water, you'll notice several spinal column platforms that slide up and down. The easternmost one leads to the Ethereal Crossbow while the second-to-westernmost one will take you to a Hellstaff. All of the spinal column walls in these areas are secret doors and lifts connecting the upper passages. The second-westernmost lift is important for another reason, as well: when you cross between it and the raised corridor it leads to, a lift will drop nearby. Go back and follow this lift up, looping around back to the bridge area and taking note of the wall with the two spinal column motifs on it just before the dropoff. Go through this loop a second time, and the wall in question will have lowered granting access to the yellow key.

Head to the yellow door, which is down the central passage from the bridge. The spinal column walls in your way are lifts which can be lowered by using them. On the other side of the yellow door, find a switch, pull it, collect the Phoenix Rod that is revealed and pull the second switch right next to it. The large spinal column wall lowers revealing a large group of iron liches. Destroy them all and the exit teleporter will lower, allowing you to complete the episode.

Official

 * 1) The sector containing the yellow key counts as a secret and is impossible to miss. (sector 32)
 * 2) On the south side of the shattered bridge are six spine lifts. Activate the easternmost lift on the west side and ride it up to a Ring of Invulnerability, then head south through two more spine walls and down some steps to see a third spine wall on your right. Open this wall to find a Quartz Flask, along with a Flame Orb and a Tome of Power on bringest them oneth (BTO) skill level or lower. (sector 87)
 * 3) Back at the six spine lifts, activate the westernmost lift on the east side and ride it up to a Shadowsphere, then head south through two more spine walls and down some steps to see a third spine wall on your left. Open this wall to find a Quartz Flask, along with a Flame Orb and a Bag of Holding on BTO or lower. (sector 96)

Non-official

 * Go outside from the starting stairway, then return to the start to find a chamber has opened containing nitrogolem ghosts and Timebombs of the Ancients.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on August 31, 2023.

Player spawns
This level contains five spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 75)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 76)
 * 3) facing north. (thing 77)
 * 4) facing west. (thing 116)
 * 5) facing east. (thing 117)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: